Wall Street bank chiefs will tout the role their institutions have played in getting the pandemic-hit U.S. economy back on track when they appear before Congress this week, but they are likely to face tough questions on hot-button social and economic issues, Reuters reported. The Senate Banking and House of Representatives Financial Services committees will hear from the chief executives of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley tomorrow and Thursday, respectively. Tommorow's hearing is the first time the CEOs of the nation's largest banks have testified before the Senate Banking Committee since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Democratic gains in the 2020 election handed control of that panel to Sen. Sherrod Brown, a fierce Wall Street critic. While the hearings are unlikely to result in policy proposals, they are politically risky for the CEOs as scrutiny of their industry grows in Washington, D.C., under Democratic leadership. They are likely to be grilled on a raft of issues including economic inequality, fair lending, diversity, racial justice, climate change, cryptocurrencies and tax policies. The banking industry's image has improved in Washington since the financial crisis a decade ago, and big banks believe they have a good story to tell after getting $69 billion of COVID-19 aid into the hands of 850,000 struggling small businesses.
